What Difference Does This Difference in Age Make?
by Unread-Letters
Summary: Jeff and Annie reflect on their age difference. Rated T for some language, sex and slight brief drug references.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot, that's all mine. Everything else belongs to Dan Harmon and NBC. "What difference does this difference in age make" belongs to Brand New, from their song "Sudden Death in California" from their album**_** Your Favorite Weapon.**_

**Author's Note: This is just a little drabble I came up with. In it, Annie is born in 1991 when Jeff would have been 16. This makes her 19 during the season finale and Jeff 35. I did some research and as far as I know Jeff's exact age is never mentioned and all we know of Annie is that she should have graduated high school in 2009. If my research is wrong, please let me know. Thanks so much for reading. Questions, comments, concerns and criticisms are always welcome. Thanks again.**

** What Difference Does This Difference in Age Make?**

**By: UnreadLetters**

"_He's got a pretty persuasion. She's got pretty persuasion."- Jawbreaker_

Sixteen years is a really big gap but Jeff tries to ignore that. However, in the process of trying to ignore the 16 that has been permanently branded on his brain, he thinks back to when we was sixteen. It was 1991. He wore a lot of flannel and ripped jeans, something he'll never admit to. The most he can remember is sitting in the back of Danny Blacker's mom's minivan listening to _Nevermind_ and smoking pot. He dated a girl, Jenny, who liked A Tribe Called Quest and wore those big gold hoop earrings so that she looked like a Fly Girl from _In Living Color_. He got drunk for the first time when they visited Danny's brother, Ryan, in college. It was snowing that night and all he remembers is shouting through a payphone that he'd rather date _Clarissa Explains It All_ than of a Fly Girl. Jenny threw his jacket at him on the following Monday. His mother still has that jacket tucked in a box up in the attic. Jeff pretends he doesn't care but he's glad she held on to it. In 1991 he cried when Freddie Mercury died (he would never tell a single soul that one, either). He lost his virginity that summer to a girl at a Pearl Jam concert. He saw _Terminator 2 _twice in the theatre. Once with the Pearl Jam girl and again by himself because he had missed a lot the first time around. He never saw the Pearl Jam girl, a tiny brunette (maybe he does have a type), after that. He heard through the grapevine that she was pregnant but it turned out to be another kid's. 1991 was a good year for Jeff Winger. While he was getting wasted and laid and playing air guitar, little baby Annie was learning to crawl and talk and smile.

Annie lays in bed at night and can't help but think about the age difference. She told Jeff it didn't matter to her and it doesn't. But at night when her mind goes blank, her brain fills with giant 16s. She wonders what Jeff was like at sixteen. For some reason she figures he'd be just like Troy was when they were sixteen. She would ask Jeff but he'd get uncomfortable and change the subject like he always does whenever age is brought into their conversations. Annie thinks about herself at sixteen and although it was only three years ago, it feels like a lifetime. That Annie was so obsessed with doing things and going somewhere that she dug her own grave. Annie doesn't like to think about those days. She does a little research on the year she was born, watches some of the movies, puts some of the songs on her iPod. Jeff's a little surprised when he discovers her love for the Violent Femmes to which she giggles and waves his comment away with a "I've listened to them for forever." Jeff doesn't really believe her (because Violent Femmes? Really, Annie? Even if "American Music" is one of his favorite songs, he really can't picture Annie rocking out to it) but he doesn't say anything because the day before he downloaded the entire Bird and the Bee discography because Annie is always talking about how she loved them in high school.

When Jeff and Annie finally decide to tell the group about them, the biggest argument they receive is in regards their difference in age.

"Sixteen years," Shirley says with Britta nodding emphatically behind her, "just isn't right." Troy just shrugs. Abed's about to make a point about Roman Polanski being wrongly accused but Pierce cuts him off with a, "sixteen's nothing, how about forty?"

Jeff and Annie just stand before them all repeating that the sixteen years don't really matter and that Annie is pretty mature when she needs to be and Jeff immature most of the time and it works really well. Despite the fact that Annie's dad was a senior at the same high school where Jeff was a freshmen and when she told her parents her new boyfriend's name, he said he knew a Winger who hung around with Ryan Blacker's little brother, Danny, and broke his collarbone during football tryouts. Annie's dad shakes his head and asks aloud what happened to that kid. Last he heard, that crazy Winger kid (a legend even as a freshmen) got some girl he met at a Pearl Jam concert knocked up. Annie bites her tongue so she doesn't shout "it wasn't his" at her father. Because of all of this, she can't bring herself to tell her parents that it was the same Winger and spends months running out to the car when Jeff picks her up so he doesn't have to knock on the door.

Despite all of this, Annie and Jeff persevere because they have hope that the outside world will somehow be more accepting. But that also seems to be a lost cause.

The first time Annie comes to this realization is when she meets Jeff's next-door neighbors. She's in his kitchen making breakfast while Jeff snores rather loudly from his bedroom. She's wearing an old t-shirt of his and a pair of gym shorts she had found in the laundry pile and is just pouring the scrambled eggs into the pan when the doorbell rings. She rushes to the door, hoping to make it before the bell rings again and wakes Jeff up. She flings the door open quickly and is greeted by a couple she has never seen before. The wife, she assumes, speaks immediately without giving Annie an opportunity to respond.

"Oh! Hello!" the older woman says warmly, "Jeff never told us he had a daughter."

"He never really told us anything about himself, honey." The husband mumbles next to her.

"Oh, shut up, John!" she slaps him lightly on the arm then offers her hand to Annie. "I'm Carol Anderson and this is my husband, John."

Annie smiles and takes her hand, unsure of how to introduce herself. "Annie Edison, I'm Jeff's…" just as she pauses, the door she's leaning on leaves her. She looks up to find Jeff standing in its place wearing only a bed sheet wrapped very loosely around his hips.

"…my girlfriend." He says before Annie can.

John laughs nervously but Carol clears her throat disapprovingly and keeps on. "Oh, Jeff we thought she was your daughter."

Jeff smirks and shakes his head, placing his arm around Annie's shoulders, "Nope. Definitely, not." He eyes Annie up and down quickly with a look that isn't really appropriate in front of the neighbors. Annie can feel herself blush.

Carol clears her throat abruptly again and nudges her husband who jumps and removes his own eyes from Annie. "Oh..right…" He says, flustered, "Carol and I got a piece of your mail." He hands over an envelope. "We'll be seeing you then!" John gives a friendly wave and pulls his wife away who is mumbling things about mail order brides and teenage trafficking.

Later that night, in between kisses, Annie asks Jeff what wall they share with the Andersons.

"Why do you want to know?" He asks, propping himself on his elbow and raising an eyebrow.

"Just curious." She whispers against his collarbone as she kisses it lightly, waiting for his answer.

"This one." He says a little breathlessly as he taps lightly on the wall behind the headboard. He swears he feels her smile as she kisses his chest.

The following morning Jeff can't help from commenting about the interesting observation he made the night before. He rolls over on his side and grins when his eyes meet Annie's. "So…you were a little loud last night."

A slight pink color rises to her cheeks and she looks slightly shocked, "Was…was I?" she asks innocently.

He bites his lip in an attempt to control himself for a couple more minutes. "Uh huh. And I know for a fact," he rolls over and checks the clock on his nightstand, "that Carol and John are right next door enjoying a lovely breakfast."

"Are they?" Annie's lips turn up a little at the corner.

He nods slowly and runs his hand lightly up and down her thigh. "think you can try it again?"

Annie looks thoughtful for a second then nods slowly, "I will need a little bit of help."

He kisses her as he pulls himself up to hover over her, "I was counting on it."

Carol and John Anderson never knock on Jeff Winger's door again but that doesn't stop Jeff from adding an extra day to his work out regime and Annie from vowing to wear high heels more. Jeff argues that it helps him relax and Annie just wishes she were taller but both are secretly wishing to make that sixteen year gap seem just a little smaller.

**The End**


End file.
